Traditional Foods

Nutrition Education; Diet is an important determinant of obesity, which contributes to the IRS (Insulin Resistant Syndrome) and pre-diabetes. Some of the activities/services we will provide to the youth and families on the Colville Reservation include: Healthy cooking (children's cookbooks given) and tasting; Shopping for the best nutrition; Portioning; Think Your Drinks; etc. Here again, we would use the elder population to assist with their story-telling capability. Our survey showed that over the whole reservation, approximately 80% of people over age 55 utilize the Senior Center for it's programs. It is here we would tie in traditional foods: herbs, roots, berries, vegetables, fish and game. Before anyone ever came to this country, Native Americans prepared and ate highly nutritious food. We want to show the youth, they too, can do that. We will use our camps (TLYC) where they can learn filleting, smoking, canning, freezing, even making pemmican, a super food for emergency/disaster situations. In each community/school, we could institute a "Walking -- Learning Garden" w/ traditional foods of long ago.